One Sad Dog

Max is really missing his little buddy, Clifford. He gets up with the sun and runs around the yard barking at anything and everything until late at night. James plans on trying to teach him to walk on a leash, so he can go on long walks with him, but I’m not sure if this is going to be possible. We’d never had a dog that totally freaks when a leash is hooked on, but Max does. When he goes to the vet, it’s always an adventure. He’s a fairly big dog and strong. So he doesn’t strangle himself or pull his collar off, we use a halter. At least we can control him with the halter.

Shayna, our oldest daughter thinks we should get another dog. My first response was no. We have had too many pets over the years. Most taken in because they were dropped on us. Living in the country does have some drawbacks. At this time we have one Nigerian Dwarf goat, Max, a small Doberman/Chihuahua mix that lives in the house and hates Max, three old cats, and a parakeet. We did have three goats. As they passed away, we did not replace them. We had four cats and when Ruffles passed away last May, we didn’t replace her. My youngest daughter, Joanna, started out with two parakeets. One morning as she was getting ready for school Ruffles climbed up close to the cage reached in and snapped the bird’s neck. Shocked both Joanna and Ruffles. Ruffles was our mouser. She would catch the field mice that managed to sneak in and kill it so the other cats could play with it acting like they killed it. After Ruffles killed that bird, she gave up mousing. We had to get traps, because the other cats couldn’t catch a mouse if it ran into their mouths. When Ruffles killed the bird, I went right out and bought another bird. When the other bird died suddenly, I went out and bought another bird. And when that bird died suddenly I realized these birds don’t have a long lifespan, so if I waited a little while we’d have no birds. After the first death, the bird moved to my bedroom/office. So, it’s been about three years that I’ve had the one bird. He’s not the friendliest thing, and I worry about him being lonely, but I refuse to go out and buy another bird.

I’ll admit, I’m wavering on getting Max another dog friend. He just looks so blasted lonely. He had this cute trick of grinning with full teeth while dunking his head. He doesn’t grin lately.